Publication Date: 06-30-2025

The Sum of All Fears (2002) review

Dir. Phil Alden Robinson

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

This review was originally written in January 2020, but never published to my original ProBoards website nor my official website until now.

The president of Russia has died and is succeeded by a mysterious individual about whom little is known. This ignites a fear in other countries, particular America, about his intentions with Russia’s nuclear powerhouse, and the fact Russia is engaged in a conflict with Chechnya. Without many options, CIA Director Bill Cabot (Morgan Freeman) recruits a young analyst named Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) to supply intel on the new president when, out of nowhere, the capital of Chechnya is leveled after a nuclear bomb is dropped. United States President J. Robert Fowler (James Cromwell) and the bulk of American diplomats are quick to point the finger to Russia, but Ryan’s research tells him there are other factors at play. Those “other factors?” Indeed, terrorists.

Decades prior, an Israeli plane carrying a nuclear bomb was shot down, but the bomb was never discovered, until a scrap collector discovered the device and subsequently sold it to a black market in South Africa. The bomb then made its way into the hands of an Austrian tycoon (Alan Bates), whose ultimate goal is to start a war of words between America and Russia that will eventually lead to the destruction of both and the ascension of Europe. Ryan is able to convince Cabot that this ostensibly far-fetched possibility is what’s happening, and America using Russia as a scapegoat falls perfectly in line with terrorists’ plans to get both countries engaged in a war of their own while the larger problem usurps them both.

Such is the plot of The Sum of All Fears, one of the first overtly political thrillers released after 9/11, in the spring of 2002. It earns its keep as a curious piece of history, coming out in lieu one of the most troubling times in American history. Sure, it’s fiction, but there’s something objectively unnerving about a film like this — showing the potential for a renewed nuclear disaster — emerging after a horrific terrorist attack, all while contextualizing the blanket villain term of “terrorists” as the (largely faceless) antagonists of a blockbuster. That said, the film mostly doesn’t denigrate its concept for cheap entertainment. The Sum of All Fears is not a disaster film in the technical sense. It gives us a look at the closed-door meetings and the fragility of the global landscape on which American diplomats must operate in order to rest at night believing there is such a thing as safety, even in the moment.

On that note, however, the gravity of the overarching conflict isn’t always there. It’s talky, comprised of jargon-heavy conversations that are difficult to keep in-tuned with if you’re not someone with grand knowledge of the political system. Conversations feel weighty given the war-room settings and what is ultimately at stake (life on Earth versus total nuclear destruction), but the emotional resonance isn’t there. The romance between Ryan and his girlfriend Cathy (Bridget Moynahan) is a hokey distraction; almost the equivalent of Anakin and Padmé in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, which came out the same year. The surrounding human implications are lost in a fit of political-speak that, predictably, undermines the souls and well-being of millions. Yes, it isn’t that kind of movie at heart, but those are the films that often resonate. We remember the characters, not the talking heads, and The Sum of All Fears is focused on the decision-makers to whom most general audience members cannot relate.

The film is more-or-less a reboot of the “Jack Ryan” film series, which originated as a series of novels by Tom Clancy, the veteran novelist known for his detailed espionage thrillers. The “Jack Ryan” film series, as is the case with the novels, has been anything but formal and continuous. The Hunt for Red October had Alec Baldwin playing the character, while subsequent sequels, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. both starred Harrison Ford. With The Sum of All Fears, producers and casting agents must’ve thought it wise to have Ben Affleck take a crack at the character after he had “success” in Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor. As much as I do like Ben Affleck and his range, he’s so obviously miscast. Ryan doesn’t match Affleck’s clean-cut, boyish image, and even Affleck himself looks out of his element in scenes alongside Freeman’s Cabot, where the characters’ (and actors themselves) show a clear divide between age, experience, and conviction. Liev Schreiber, who plays Agent John Clark, would’ve been a more apt casting choice for Ryan: he’s a visibly veteran presence in his scenes, for one, and he presumably could get more out of the character than someone who looked like they would be sorting analytic data for the CIA for 30 years, waiting on the same promotion that consistently seems so elusive.

The Sum of All Fears has some disquieting moments when it tries to embrace the action movie within, such as the much-discussed nuclear bombing of the Super Bowl, an event that well over 15 years later, still seems entirely too probable at one point or another. Its concept is one that will appeal to readers of Clancy-branded fiction, but for casual viewers, it’s a mess of plot with a third act that ties things together way too quickly. If you’re lost early in the film, you’re going to be lost for the duration of it, and that sort of caveat is only appealing when you feel supremely confident in the material and your understanding of it. If nothing else, this was a good reminder that I need to read more.

Starring: Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Bridget Moynahan, Liev Schreiber, and Alan Bates. Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson.